In 1981 two workmates employed by the then ‘Chapel River Press’ of Weyhill Road, Andover, namely Bob Crackett and John Rhodes, signed up for a photographic course at Cricklade College.  John Randall also took part.

It transpired that in their opinion, the course fell very short of what they expected. To put it more to the point, Bob and John thought that the knowledge they already possessed on photography far exceeded that being taught them week after week at the college.

They decided that a far better outcome could be achieved by the setting up of a camera club within the works and approached the factories own club ‘The New River club’ for weekly use of the canteen room.

There already existed a a camera club in Andover, namely ‘Andover Photographic Society’ who met weekly at Harrow Way School and who incidentally were one of the founder member clubs of the Southern Photographic Federation in 1963.

Bob and John wished to use the better facilities of the ‘New River Club’.  After much canvassing for members and the setting up of the first committee the name was chosen.  It was to be called ‘Split Image’ after the focusing aid you see when you look through a SLR camera viewfinder.  1982 saw the first season and slowly membership grew.

Unfortunately no record was kept of the original committee of 1982, the only ones faithfully remembered were John Rhodes – Chairman, Bob Crackett – Competition Secretary and Mike Hansen – Programme Secretary.

As the club became more established and membership increased, the ‘New River Club’ were approached as to the possible move from the canteen, into the large dance hall.  This arrangement took place and the club carried on until it felt that a larger membership was needed, not only to use the now very large hall to its full advantage, but also to bring in extra revenue.  The hall had an open area for rows of chairs but also has booths on either side, these were very comfortable and during less inspiring talks members in the booths would occasionally nod off, some talks were paused due to the snoring.

It had been noted that ‘Andover Photographic Society’ were rather unsatisfied with their present venue at Harrow Way School.  A meeting of the two clubs was convened and after some lengthy debate, it was finally decided that they should join forces using the ‘New River Club’ dance hall as the weekly venue.

As neither club wished to lose all of their originality, the name of the club would be ‘Andover (Split Image) Photographic Society or A.S.I.P.S. and become widely known throughout the Southern Federation.

The first year of the newly formed club was 1987 and both clubs settled together very well and indeed did so for a further two years.

In 1989 the fees at the ‘New River Club’ increased to a point that could well have been the demise of A.S.I.P.S. purely for monetary reasons, another venue had to be sought after.

Now, it happened, that Mike Hansen had read in the local ‘Advertiser’ that an old public house in Clanville, (A village nearby), the Red Lion was to be opened under new management, he thought he would pop in for a pint just to survey the scene.

On meeting the landlord and landlady, David and Jenifer North,  it came to light that they had great plans for the establishment, one of which the building of a 40ft square function room.

While at the Red Lion we had a talk by Busty Taylor on Crop Circles, Busty was an expert on the subject and gave an interesting talk, he invented the pole method of taking photos of crop circles by attaching a film camera to a 20ft pole (the ultimate selfie stick).

Busty liked the club and joined, during one of the summer recesses he started talking about dousing, this led to about 3 or 4 of the club members walking around the car park with dousing rods. Sadly no photos were taken.

On another occasion we had a slide lecture about Hadrian’s Wall. When the first picture of the wall itself came up, Sandy Wilson said “that was built to keep us out”, from the back of the room came the booming reply “didn’t work then did it” at which point the talk had to be paused while the members recovered.

During a competition a judge commented on how lucky the photographer was to get such a good picture of a Tawny owl sat in a tree at dusk, before he could give it a score there were loud snorts of laughter, which made him look closer at the picture where upon he realised the owl was stuffed.!

This was in 1990 and suffice to say A.S.I.P.S. relocated to the Red Lion Country Inn.  When the landlord didn’t renew the lease on The Red Lion and it closed, we moved to Thruxton village hall, a nice hall but terrible parking.

After about a year a new landlord took over and we went back to the Red Lion in Clanville. However, shortly afterward the Red Lion closed again, and we moved to our current location.

With the advent of digital photography, the ‘Split Image’ part of the name no longer had relevance, as the current cameras do not use the split image to achieve focus.  The club formally changed its name to the Andover Photographic Club in January 2019.

As part of the SCPF we compete with other clubs in Print and DPI leagues.

After more than 40 years, John Randall, the only original member, retired at the AGM in May 2024.  John had given sterling support over the years as both Club Secretary and Competitions Secretary.  He had also been one of the premier competition judges for external competitions across our region and offered invaluable advice for our own internal competitions.

Sadly, John passed away on 23 September 2024.

John had spent most of his life renovating cars and tractors and displaying them at various shows and fetes around the country.  He was also a gifted painter and a member of the local artists club as well as a stalwart of our own club.  His loss continues to be felt.

To increase our membership, we have attended markets in the town high street for several years.  We set our gazebo up with laminated images from club members on three sides and invite passersby to come and talk about our images and their photographic achievements.  We have seen the theme of these markets change from providers of food and drink to trade stalls to everything in between.

The advent of Covid saw these markets cease for a two-year period then reinvent themselves as Artisan markets where each stall displayed crafted goods.  Sadly, the footfall decreased and from the end of 2022 it was decided by the market committee that the markets would take a break.

We needed to find an alternative means of displaying our images and recruiting, hopefully, new members.  It was decided to see if space was available for us at some of the many village fetes in the area.

In 2023 we attended Appleshaw, Chute and Penton village fetes. These were ably supported by volunteers and weather permitting were very worthwhile for us to take part.

It helped that club members were on some of the village committee’s which smoothed the way for us to attend.

While this was going on, the Andover Carnival had recommenced after its enforced closure and our gazebo could be spotted in the park as club members recorded the event as official photographers.

During 2024 we attended further village fetes in Chute, Appleshaw and Abbotts Ann and recruited further members. We have been lucky in that our membership has stayed steady at 30 members.

We have always been a small club and have lost members but have recruited new members through our summer efforts.

Our Programme Secretary – Esther Gallimore – organises a rich and rewarding programme catering for as many members that want to take part.  Like other clubs we have been feeling the economic pinch and always seek guidance from our members in ways to keep the programme vibrant and for ways to increase membership. Guests are always welcome and we provide hot refreshments at popular prices which helps augment our income.

Throughout the season we also provide Information snippets, so, if a member has asked for advice on a particular subject a small segment of an evening is devoted to that subject.

We have infrequent Monday night Focus Groups when get togethers take place in the local area (Light trails from a bridge overlooking the A303 and wire wool spinning are two such events that produce some stunning images.)

During the summer months committee members organise day or weekend trips and invite members to partake.  Recent trips have been to the balloon festival (Flying, not inflating them) in Bristol and photographing the wide-open space that is Offord Ness.

During January to March we start to create our programme for next season and always feel that we need to expand our reach, so if you are ever at a loose end on a Thursday evening, you are very welcome to visit us.

(Compiled from ‘A brief History of Andover ‘Split Image’ Photographic Society by Mike Hansen and memories from Rod Cotton.)